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Hanta rescues books from the jaws of his compacting press and
carries them home. Hrabal, whom Milan Kundera calls "our very best
writer today," celebrates the power and the indestructibility of
the written word. Translated by Michael Henry Heim.
In a comic masterpiece following the misadventures of a simple but
hugely ambitious waiter in pre-World War II Prague, who rises to
wealth only to lose everything with the onset of Communism, Bohumil
Hrabal takes us on a tremendously funny and satirical trip through
20th-century Czechoslovakia.
First published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally
printed in book form in 1989, "I Served the King of England" is "an
extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" ("The New York Times"),
telling the tale of Ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in
a deluxe Prague hotel in the years before World War II. Ditie is
called upon to serve not the King of England, but Haile Selassie.
It is one of the great moments in his life. Eventually, he falls in
love with a Nazi woman athlete as the Germans are invading
Czechoslovakia. After the war, through the sale of valuable stamps
confiscated from the Jews, he reaches the heights of his ambition,
building a hotel. He becomes a millionaire, but with the
institution of communism, he loses everything and is sent to
inspect mountain roads. Living in dreary circumstances, Ditie comes
to terms with the inevitability of his death, and with his place in
history.
Novelist Bohumil Hrabal was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and he
spent decades working at a variety of laboring jobs before turning
to writing in his late forties. From that point, he quickly made
his mark on the Czech literary scene; by the time of his death he
was ranked with Jaroslav Hasek, Karel Capek, and Milan Kundera as
among the nation's greatest twentieth-century writers. Hrabal's
fiction blends tragedy with humor and explores the anguish of
intellectuals and ordinary people alike from a slightly surreal
perspective. His work ranges from novels and poems to film scripts
and essays. Rambling On is a collection of stories set in Hrabal's
Kersko. Several of the stories were written before the 1968 Soviet
invasion of Prague but had to be reworked when they were rejected
by Communist censorship during the 1970s. This edition features the
original, uncensored versions of those stories.
Fiction. Translation from the Czech by James Naughton. Bohumil
Hrabal's TOTAL FEARS is a series of letters Hrabal wrote during the
collapse of the Czech communist regime from 1989-1992. The letters
were what Hrabal referred to as his "lyrical reportage" and were
addressed to an American student who went by the alias Dubenka. The
letters follow a free-associative logic and are sometimes
imaginary, making the book a testament to memory with "quick,
rambling, spoken but purposeful writing" --The TLS.
For gauche young apprentice Milos Hrma, life at the small but strategic railway station in Bohemia in 1945 is full of complex preoccupations. There is the exacting business of dispatching German troop trains to and from the toppling Eastern front; the problem of ridding himself of his burdensome innocence; and the awesome scandal of Dispatcher Hubicka’s gross misuse of the station’s official stamps upon the telegraphist’s anatomy. Beside these, Milos’s part in the plan for the ammunition train seems a simple affair. CLOSELY OBSERVED TRAINS, which became the award-winning Jiri Menzel film of the ‘Prague Spring’, is a classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour, humanity and heroism which fully justifies Hrabal’s reputation as one of the best Czech writers of today.
A classic of postwar literature, a small masterpiece of humour,
humanity and heroism from one of the best Czech writers For
twenty-two-year-old Milos, bumbling apprentice at a sleepy Czech
railway station, life is full of worries: his burdensome virginity,
his love for the pretty conductor Masha, the scandalous goings-on
in the station master's office. Beside them, the part he will come
to play against the occupying Germans seems a simple affair, in
Bohumil Hrabal's touching, absurd masterpiece of humour, humanity
and heroism. Closely Watched Trains, which became the award-winning
Jiri Menzel film of the 'Prague Spring', is a masterpiece that
fully justifies Hrabal's reputation as one of the best Czech
writers of the twentieth century.
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All My Cats (Paperback)
Bohumil Hrabal
1
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R243
R196
Discovery Miles 1 960
Save R47 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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'One of the greatest European prose writers' Philip Roth In the
autumn of 1965, Bohumil Hrabal bought a weekend cottage in the
countryside east of Prague. There, until his death, he tended to an
ever-growing, unruly community of cats. This is his confessional,
tender and shocking meditation on the joys and torments of his life
with them; how he became increasingly overwhelmed by the demands of
the things he loved, even to the brink of madness. 'Dark and
strange ... It begins with warmth and fluffiness, but soon descends
into Dostoevskian horror' Daily Telegraph 'The Czech master exposed
the animal within us' New Yorker
Gaps begins with Hrabal receiving the long anticipated advance copy
of his first short story collection, Perlicka na dne (Pearl of the
Deep). Hrabal's career as a successful writer starts here, and the
novel details his rise on the domestic front, his relationship with
influential Czech artists and writers, as well as the international
recognition he gains from novels such as Closely Watched Trains.
Gaps is a more overtly political novel than either In-House
Weddings or Vita Nuova. The 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia
and the subsequent repression of artistic freedom figure
prominently. Hrabal is placed on the "liquidated writers" list, and
copies of his novel Poupata (Buds) are disposed of at the paper
salvage where he once worked. Hrabal's decision to tell his
autobiography in his wife Eliska's voice highlights their very
close relationship and lovingly details her deep influence on his
work. Every movement, sound, fragrance, and color is detailed,
creating a collage of Bohumil and Eliska's life together, an
unforgettable picture that reveals the author's innermost attitudes
to life, love, and the pursuit of his own art.
Novelist Bohumil Hrabal (1914-97) was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia,
and spent decades working at a variety of laboring jobs before
turning to writing in his late forties. From that point, he quickly
made his mark on the Czech literary scene; by the time of his death
he was ranked with Jaroslav Hasek, Karel Capek, and Milan Kundera
as among the nation's greatest twentieth-century writers. Hrabal's
fiction blends tragedy with humor and explores the anguish of
intellectuals and ordinary people alike from a slightly surreal
perspective. His work ranges from novels and poems to film scripts
and essays. Rambling On is a collection of stories set in Hrabal's
Kersko. Several of the stories were written before the 1968 Soviet
invasion of Prague but had to be reworked when they were rejected
by Communist censorship during the 1970s. This edition features the
original, uncensored versions of those stories.
'Folks, life is beautiful! Bring on the drinks, I'm sticking around
till I'm ninety! Do you hear?' A young boy grows up in a sleepy
Czech community where little changes. His raucous, mischievous
Uncle Pepin came to stay with the family years ago, and never left.
But the outside world is encroaching on their close-knit town -
first in the shape of German occupiers, and then with the new
Communist order. Elegiac and moving, Bohumil Hrabal's gem-like
portrayal of the passing of an age is filled with wit, life and
tenderness. 'What is unique about Hrabal is his capacity for joy'
Milan Kundera 'Even in a town where nothing happens, Hrabal's
meticulous and exuberant fascination with the human voice insists
that, as long as there's still breath in a body, life is endlessly
eventful' Independent
Rake, drunkard, aesthete, gossip, raconteur extraordinaire: the
narrator of Bohumil Hrabal's rambling, rambunctious masterpiece
"Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age" is all these and more.
Speaking to a group of sunbathing women who remind him of lovers
past, this elderly roue tells the story of his life--or at least
unburdens himself of a lifetime's worth of stories. Thus we learn
of amatory conquests (and humiliations), of scandals both private
and public, of military adventures and domestic feuds, of what
things were like "in the days of the monarchy" and how they've
changed since. As the book tumbles restlessly forward, and the
comic tone takes on darker shadings, we realize we are listening to
a man talking as much out of desperation as from exuberance.
Hrabal, one of the great Czech writers of the twentieth century,
as well as an inveterate haunter of Prague's pubs and football
stadiums, developed a unique method which he termed "palavering,"
whereby characters gab and soliloquize with abandon. Part drunken
boast, part soul-rending confession, part metaphysical poem on the
nature of love and time, this astonishing novel (which unfolds in a
single monumental sentence) shows why he has earned the admiration
of such writers as Milan Kundera, John Banville, and Louise
Erdrich.
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Cutting It Short (Paperback)
Bohumil Hrabal; Translated by James Naughton
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R272
R219
Discovery Miles 2 190
Save R53 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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'As I crammed the cream horn voraciously into my mouth, at once I
heard Francin's voice saying that no decent woman would eat a cream
puff like that' In a quiet town where not much happens, Maryska,
the flamboyant brewer's wife, stands out. She cuts her skirt short
so that she can ride her bicycle, her golden hair flying out behind
her. She butchers pigs. She drinks and eats with relish. And when
the garrulous ranconteur Uncle Pepin comes to visit the locals are
scandalized even further, in Bohumil Hrabal's affecting, exuberant
portrayal of a small central European community between the wars.
'One of the greatest European prose writers' Philip Roth 'Hrabal
combines good humour and hilarity with tenderness' Observer
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Mr Kafka (Paperback)
Bohumil Hrabal; Translated by Paul Wilson
1
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R303
R244
Discovery Miles 2 440
Save R59 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Enter the gas-lit streets of post-war Prague, the steelworks run by
singed men, the covered market that smells of new-born babes, the
cacophonous open-air dance hall. Mr Kafka is avoiding his
landlady's blueberry wine breath, a stonemason witnesses the
destruction of a monument to Stalin he risked his life to build,
and factory men strain to catch a glimpse of a beautiful bathing
murderess. In these newly discovered stories, Hrabal captures men
and women in an eerily beautiful nightmare and their spirit in all
its misery and splendour.
First published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally
printed in book form in 1989, I Served the King of England is "an
extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" (The New York Times),
telling the tale of Ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in
a deluxe Prague hotel in the years before World War II. Ditie is
called upon to serve not the King of England, but Haile Selassie.
It is one of the great moments in his life. Eventually, he falls in
love with a Nazi woman athlete as the Germans are invading
Czechoslovakia. After the war, through the sale of valuable stamps
confiscated from the Jews, he reaches the heights of his ambition,
building a hotel. He becomes a millionaire, but with the
institution of communism, he loses everything and is sent to
inspect mountain roads. Living in dreary circumstances, Ditie comes
to terms with the inevitability of his death, and with his place in
history.
Originally published as "The Death of Mr. Baltisberger, "the
fourteen stories in "Romance "showcase the breadth of Bohumil
Hrabal's considerable gifts: his humor of the grotesque, his often
surprising warmth, and his hard-edged, fast-paced style. In the
story "Romance," a plumber's apprentice and a gypsy girl reach
toward a tentative connection across the chasm that separates their
worlds. Another unlikely love story, "World Cafeteria," features a
romance between a young man whose girlfriend has just committed
suicide and a bride whose husband lands in jail on their wedding
night.
The tone turns to the absurd in "The Death of Mr. Baltisberger,"
where a crippled ex-motorcyclist and three people he meets at the
track exchange wildly improbably reminiscences, while a fatal Grand
Prix motorcycle race rages around them. Hrabal's psychological
insight into quotidian interactions saturates stories such as "A
Dull Afternoon," where a mysterious, self-absorbed stranger
disrupts the psychic calm of a neighborhood tavern and becomes the
silent catalyst for an unwanted truth.
Throughout the collection, noted translator Michael Henry Heim
captures the quirky speech patterns and idiosyncratic takes on life
that have made Hrabal's characters an indispensable part of world
literature.
Vita Nuova is the second in a trilogy of memoirs written from the
perspective of Bohumil Hrabal's wife, Eliska, about their life in
Prague from the 1950s to the 1970s, when Communist repression of
artists was at its peak. Hrabal's inimitable humor, which in
Eliska's ruminations ranges from bawdy slapstick to cutting irony,
is all the more penetrating for being directed at himself. ""Vita
Nuova"" showcases Hrabal's legendary bohemian intellectual life,
particularly his relationship with Vladimir Boudnik. Hrabal creates
a shrewd, lively portrait of Eastern European intellectual life in
the mid-twentieth century.
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In-House Weddings (Paperback)
Bohumil Hrabal; Translated by Tony Liman
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R607
R572
Discovery Miles 5 720
Save R35 (6%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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Inspired by "Mrs. Tolstoy and Mrs. Dostoevsky, whose biographies
about their husbands have now been published in Prague," Bohumil
Hrabal decided to produce his own autobiographical work, ostensibly
fiction, from his wife's point of view. He would write, he said,
"not a putdown about myself, but a little bit of how it all was,
that marriage of ours, with myself as a jewel and adornment of our
life together." The task, taken up by such a rogue comic talent,
could be nothing other than strangely delightful; and in In-House
Weddings, the first of the trilogy that Hrabal produced, we meet
the author through the eyes of his wife Eliska. She narrates his
life from his upbringing in Nymburk through his work as a
dispatcher in a train station and then in a scrap paper plant, his
first publication, his trouble with the authorities, and his
association with notable artists and authors such as Jiri Kolar,
Vladimir Boudnik, and Arnost Lustig. Hrabal's bohemian life was
itself a source of great interest to the Czech public; transmuted
here, it is even more compelling, a wry portrait of artistic life
in postwar Eastern Europe and a telling reflection on how such a
life might be recast in the light of literary brilliance.
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